Hikers stroll on the Colorado Trail and Continental Divide National Scenic Trail in southern Colorado’s Cochetopa Hills. The Forest Service is backing off an initial plan to ban bikes from a reroute of the trail. (Bill Manning, Colorado Trail Foundation)

More than 900 comments from mountain bikers and biking supporters helped sway the Forest Service to include mountain biking on the proposed new 31.2-mile trail segment from Lujan to the La Garita Wilderness. The Forest Service’s draft decision – issued last fall – recommended that only hikers and horseback riders be allowed on the new singletrack and mountain bikers left to roll along the existing route of dirt roads.

The Forest Service cited the likelihood that mountain bikers would take an active role in maintaining the trail in its decision. (IMBA’s volunteer teams contribute 700,000 hours of volunteer service on public lands each year, the association said.)

“While we understand CDNST thru-hiker desires for exclusive use of the trail, exclusion of bikes (and for that matter horses), would not be an environmentally or fiscally responsible decision on our part,” reads the Forest Service’s “Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact.”[4] “We believe that if we considered only hiker/horse use, the trail would never be fully constructed and maintenance would rarely occur because of the lack of established hiker or backcountry horseman volunteer groups in this remote part of Colorado.”

Jason Bertolacci, IMBA’s recently appointed regional director for Colorado and Wyoming, said the new trail will be a valuable resource for all trail users.

“Whether on foot, on horseback or on a bike, Colorado’s backcountry offers incredible recreation,” Bertolacci said in a statement released Thursday. “Many of our local economies depend on the tourism that trails like this generate. It’s fantastic to see this attractive new addition moving forward.”

[1] a plan to ban bikes on a new section of the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail: http://www.denverpost.com/extremes/ci_22070697/rerouting-continental-divide-trail-southern-co-could-ban